This is a course syllabus for an online World Regional Geography course. The course is fully open on Canvas and is available through Canvas Commons.

The syllabus for GGS 103_DL2: Human Geography as taught asynchronously as a distance learning course at George Mason University.

Geography is a diverse discipline that has some sort of connection to most every other academic discipline. This connection is the spatial perspective, which essentially means if a phenomenon can be mapped, it has some kind of relationship to geography. Studying the entire world is a fascinating subject, and geographical knowledge is fundamental to a competent understanding of our world. In this chapter, you will learn what geography is as well as some of the fundamental concepts that underpin the discipline. These fundamental terms and concepts will be interwoven throughout the text, so a sound understanding of these topics is critical as you delve deeper into the chapters that follow.

Diverse Perspectives

Short Description:
This book is intended for readers who have never studied the Middle East, or experts who may wish to fill gaps in their knowledge of the region from other disciplines. Whether for establishing or deepening one’s knowledge of the region, these fundamentals are important to know. The languages, cultural, religious and sectarian communities of the region, and selected turning points and influential people in history are starting points for gaining an understanding of the diverse contexts of the region.

Long Description:
This book is intended for readers who have never studied the Middle East, or experts who may wish to fill gaps in their knowledge of the region from other disciplines. Whether for establishing or deepening one’s knowledge of the region, these fundamentals are important to know. The languages, cultural, religious and sectarian communities of the region, and selected turning points and influential people in history are starting points for gaining an understanding of the diverse contexts of the region. It is based on introductory and graduate courses on the contemporary Middle East, which the Center’s director, Dr. Alam Payind, has been teaching for the past 30 years. The book’s co-author, Melinda McClimans, has taught these and other courses with him, as well as her own, for the past 15 years. The material is intended engage with diverse – even conflicting – cultural and historical perspectives, and ways of perceiving both Middle Eastern and world history from perspectives within the region. It is not intended to reinforce a monolithic or matter-of-fact perception of the region. For this and many other reasons, images are an important aspect of the knowledge presented. Each chapter starts with links to its image galleries, along with other visual aids and key elements.

Word Count: 28082

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This book is about how to read, use, and create maps. Our exploration of maps will be informed by a contextual understanding of how maps reflect the relationship between society and technology, and how mapping is an essential form of scientific and artistic inquiry. We will also explore how mapping is used to address a variety of societal issues, such as land use planning and political gerrymandering. You will gain insight into the technical underpinnings of mapping as a science approach, complement on-going interest and activities, or provide an applied focus for research or policy.

leyendo la salud y la literatura

Long Description:
We are asking anyone who adopts this webbook or uses portions of it in their teaching to please let us know at this link (click here).

Para vivir con salud: Leyendo la salud y la literatura is the first textbook to introduce literary and textual analysis of Hispanic literature through the lens of health, illness, and medicine. The book meets the needs of the fast-growing numbers of Spanish majors and minors who are preparing themselves for careers in healthcare, in which they will engage Hispanic communities. These students seek advanced-level study of Hispanic culture and language that prepares them to communicate about health-related issues. While a growing number of literature departments teach Spanish courses with a health focus and most require their majors and minors to take an introductory course in literary or textual analysis, the crucial connection between the study of literature and professionalization in healthcare is generally not being made for or by these students.

The movements of Narrative Medicine and Health Humanities have shown persuasively that healthcare providers benefit from a humanistic preparation that promotes empathy across difference; builds an understanding of how culture, language, and history shape our knowledge of health, illness, and medicine; and trains students in narrative competence to better understand and collaborate with patients and colleagues. Para vivir con salud is designed especially for the often-required Introduction to Hispanic Literature or Introduction to Textual Analysis course in most college Spanish programs, allowing individual sections to be transformed into a learning experience that prepares health professionals and brings them into greater engagement in literary and cultural studies in the Spanish major or minor.

Para vivir con salud includes classics of Hispanic narrative, drama, and poetry—pieces by authors such as Cervantes, Garcilaso, Sor Juana, Martí, Neruda, Castellanos, Pizarnik, and Morejón, less-well-known literary authors and a wealth of other types of cultural texts. While the primary genres of poetry, narrative and drama are well represented, the book includes expository essays, journalism, memoir, testimony, song, film, television, and visual art. It presents voices and experiences from the diverse Hispanic world, including European, Creole, Indigenous, Mestizo, Afro-Hispanic, Latinx, and Jewish perspectives. Selections are almost evenly divided between male and female authors. While the latter half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century comprise a little more than half of the selections, about 20% of the texts pre-date the twentieth century. Seventeen countries are represented, including the United States.

Word Count: 92559

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Short Description:
In essay format, this textbook considers examples of various sub-categories of Geography in combination with five regions of the Western World. To utilize this compelling format, click on READ BOOK or simply scroll down.

Word Count: 174885

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Rather than present students with a broad, novice-level introduction to geography, emphasizing places and vocabulary terms, this text approaches geography as experts understand the discipline, focusing on connections and an in-depth understanding of core themes. This thematic approach, informed by pedagogical research, provides students with an introduction to thinking geographically. Instead of repeating the same several themes each chapter, this text emphasizes depth over breadth by arranging each chapter around a central theme and then exploring that theme in detail as it applies to the particular region. In addition, while chapters are designed to stand alone and be rearranged or eliminated at the instructor's discretion, the theme of globalization and inequality unites all of the regions discussed. This core focus enables students to draw connections between regions and to better understand the interconnectedness of our world. Furthermore, the focus on both globalization and inequality helps demonstrate the real-world application of the concepts discussed. Colonialism, for instance, rather than a historical relict, becomes a force that has shaped geography and informs social justice. This thematic approach is also intended to facilitate active learning and would be suitable for a flipped or team-based learning-style course since it more easily integrates case studies and higher-order thinking than the traditional model.